Men's Track & Field

A highly-decorated coach who has spent his entire career in
Southeastern Massachusetts Steve Gardiner has served as the head
track and field coach at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
since the 2008-09 season. In the 2011-12 season, his Men's
Team captured its first Little East/Alliance Team Championship
in school history. The indoor squad finished the season ranked
sixteenth in the nation by the USTFCCCA computer
rankings. The outdoor team followed up by capturing the 2012
outdoor Little East/Alliance Championship. The Women's Team
achieved Academic All America Team recognition for the 2011-12
academic year and two athletes (Krista Chauvin and Jill VanNess)
earned individual Academic All America honors.

A 1974 UMass Dartmouth graduate when the university was known as
Southeastern Massachusetts University, Gardiner served as head
boys' cross country and track and field coach and as both an
assistant and the head girls' coach at New Bedford High School
since joining the Whalers in 1975. A member of the Massachusetts
Track Coaches Association Hall of Fame (2000) and the UMass
Dartmouth Athletic Hall of Fame (2003), Gardiner was named
Massachusetts Coach of the Year by the Boston Globe in 1980, 1989
and 1993, was named to the Runner's World Coaching All-Star Team in
1984, and was the District 1 (New York, New Jersey and New England)
Coach of the Year and a finalist for national honors in 1996. He
has led his teams to seven All-State outdoor track and field
championships, six Class A team championships, a New England team
championship and an Eastern Massachusetts Division I cross country
title. Six of his relay teams have claimed Division I
team titles, and he has coached three high school
All-Americans, nine New England champions, and numerous individual
state and division champions. His teams also earned more awards for
academic excellence than any other NBHS team.

A distance runner and cross country participant while an
undergraduate, Gardiner began his coaching career as an assistant
at New Bedford HS for one season before taking the reins at
Apponequet High School for the next two years. He was named as
New Bedford High School's Head Cross Country, Indoor and Outdoor
Head Coach in 1978. A member of the Massachusetts State Track
Coaches' Association and USA Track and Field, Gardiner earned his
Level II Certification at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado
Springs, CO in 1990. He has earned from the US Track and Field and
Cross Country Coaches Association Jumps Event Specialist
Certification in 2011 and Endurance Certification in 2012.